The animal bones [found in a region of Africa by the anthropologists] exhibit numerous cutmarks, and they were often broken for the extraction of marrow. The implication is that the Klasies people consumed a wide range of game, from small, greyhound-size antelope like the Cape grysbok to more imposing quarry like buffalo and eland, as well as seals and penguins. The number and location of stone tool cutmarks and the rarity of carnivore tooth marks indicate that the people were not restricted to scavenging from lions or hyenas, and they often gained first access to the intact carcasses of even large mammals like buffalo and eland.

But the bones also show that the people tended to avoid confrontations with the more common—and more dangerous—buffalo to pursue a more docile but less common antelope, the eland. Both buffalo and eland are very large animals, but buffalo stand and resist potential predators, while eland panic and flee at signs of danger. The Klasies people did hunt buffalo, and a broken tip from a stone point is still imbedded in a neck vertebra of an extinct “giant” long-horned buffalo. The people focused, however, on the less threatening young or old members in buffalo herds.

The stone points found at Klasies could have been used to arm thrusting spears, but there is nothing to suggest that the people had projectiles that could be launched from a distance, and they may thus have limited their personal risk by concentrating on eland herds that could be chased to exhaustion or driven into traps. The numerous eland bones in the Klasies layers represent roughly the same proportion of prime-age adults that would occur in a living herd. This pattern suggests the animals were not victims of accidents or endemic diseases, which tend to selectively remove the very young and the old, but rather that they suffered a catastrophe that affected individuals of all ages equally. The deposits preserve no evidence of a great flood, volcanic eruption, or epidemic disease, and from an eland perspective, the catastrophe was probably the human ability to drive whole herds over nearby cliffs.

1. The main argument advanced by the author of this passage is

(A) It was easier for the Klasies people to hunt eland than buffalo.
(B) The Klasies were unique among prehistoric people in that they consumed large land animals, such as buffalo, as well as smaller mammals from the sea.
(C) The Klasies people were at least partially responsible for the catastrophic extinction of the prehistoric antelope called the eland.
(D) Because the Klasies people lacked the use of projectile weapons and were therefore unable to hunt buffalo successfully, they diversified their diet to include smaller prey.
(E) The prehistoric Klasies people had a diverse diet and advanced hunting skills and were probably not restricted to scavenging.

2. What signs indicate to the anthropologists that Klasies people were not restricted to scavenging?

(A) The number and location of stone tool cutmarks and the absence of carnivore teeth marks in the animal bones.
(B) The fact that the animals consumed were not the victims of accidents or disease as would be expected from natural deaths.
(C) The presence of a stone spear tip in the neck of a giant long-horned buffalo.
(D) The variety of different species whose bones were found in the Klasies camp, such as penguins, seals, and antelope.
(E) The lack of any evidence of a catastrophic event such as a flood, volcanic eruption, or epidemic disease.

3. According to the author’s theory, why did the Klasies people focus on eland instead of buffalo?

(A) The eland were more numerous than the buffalo.
(B) The eland would stand and fight while the buffalo would usually panic and flee.
(C) The buffalo would stand and fight while the eland would usually panic and flee.
(D) The eland were more easily obtained from other animals through scavenging.
(E) The eland were easily killed using the projectiles that the Klasies favored when hunting.

4. Which of the following game animals is NOT listed in the passage as a probable part of the Klasies diet?

(A) penguins
(B) hyenas
(C) seals
(D) giant long-horned buffalo
(E) small, greyhound-sized antelope

5. Which of the following evidence does the author present to support the assertion that the catastrophe the eland suffered was caused by human beings?

(A) The presence of bones from prime-age animals found in the Klasies site.
(B) The broken tip of a stone point embedded in the neck of an eland skeleton.
(C) The lack of any carnivore tooth marks on the eland bones at the Klasies site.
(D) The number and location of tool marks found on the bones of a variety of animals at the Klasies site.
(E) The lack of any signs of a flood, volcanic eruption, or epidemic disease.